Lancaster ED776 at Holme on Spalding Moor airfield.
On the night of 4th / 5th May 1943 101 Squadron supplied a number of aircraft and crews for a bombing raid on Dortmund, they lost six Lancasters on this night with twenty airmen either being killed or listed as missing. A number of the 101 Squadron aircraft crash landed in Yorkshire on the return to England.
Lancaster ED776 was one of these aircraft, it took off from Holme on Spalding Moor airfield at 22.00hrs but while landing at base at 03.20hrs using a beam approach in poor visibility the aircraft undershot. It struck a small brick building with the undercarriage. The building was housing the direction finding equipment. The aircraft was badly damaged but no serious injuries resulted. The pilot later stated that he mistook the four airfield approach lights (that were away from the airfield) for that of the flarepath lights (which was closer to the airfield) and descended far sooner than he should have done.
Pilot - F/Sgt Francis James Kelly RAAF (412023).
Flight Engineer - Sgt Laurence Mooney RAF (615997).
Navigator - Sgt Edward Lawrence Wheelwright RAFVR (1451747).
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Robert Roy Sparks RAFVR (1357889).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Donald Talbot Hone RAFVR (1027696).
Air Gunner - Sgt Cecil Joseph Wearmouth RAFVR (1560925).
Air Gunner - Sgt Douglas Harold Vernon Flack RAFVR (1471986). Injured.
Douglas Flack was awarded the DFM for service with 101 Squadron, Gazetted on 18th January 1944. He received a commisison on 27th November 1944 to the rank of P/O on probation (188343)
and rose to F/O on 27th May 1945. He was probably born in the Hitchin area of Hertfordshire in 1922 and died in Stevenage in 1984.
Cecil Wearmouth was awarded the DFM for service with 101 Squadron, Gazetted on 21st January 1944. He received a commission on 22nd June 1944 to the rank of P/O on probation (179012) He probably flew with 550 Squadron later in the War and was promoted to F/O (war subs) on 22nd December 1945 and F/Lt (war subs) on 22nd June 1945. Post-war he was appointed to a commission in the Training Branch of the RAFVR as F/O on 8th November 1949 but resigned it on 1st November 1950. He probably lived in the Ilkley area and died in Bradford, Yorkshire in 2004.
Laurence Mooney was awarded the DFM for service with 101 Squadron, Gazetted on 21st January 1944, part of the citation for his DFM mentions a flak incident on 25th July 1943 while flying Ops to Essen and the aircraft was hit in the starboard outer engine. He put out the site and feathered the propeller on the damaged engine and the aircraft landed safely. He had received his commission on 4th Decemeber 1943 to P/O on probation (53786) and rose to F/O (war subs) on 4th June 1944. He was killed in action with 156 Squadron on 3rd February 1945 when Lancaster PB505 failed to return from Bottrop. He is buried in Leopoldsburg War Cemetery, Belgium. He was killed on his 28th operational flight with 156 Squadron.
Robert Sparks received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 27th September 1943 (158673), he was awarded the DFC for service with 101 Squadron, Gazetted on 21st April 1944. He was promoted to F/O (war subs) on 27th March 1944 and F/Lt (war subs) on 27th September 1945.
Francis Kelly was born on 13th March 1920 in Nyngan, New South Wales, he enlisted into the RAAF in Sydney and received a commission on 21st August 1943. He was awarded the DFC for service with 101 Squadron, Gazetted on 21st January 1944.
Edward Wheelwright received a commission on 25th June 1943 to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) and rose to F/O on probation (war subs) on 25th December 1943 and to F/Lt (war subs) on 11th June 1945. For service with 101 Squadron he too was awarded the DFC, Gazetted on 11th February 1944.
Lancaster ED776 was built to contract B.69274/40 by A.V. Roe and Co. Ltd, at Chadderton and was taken on charge as new by 101 Squadron at Holme on Spalding Moor on 23rd March 1943. As a result of the damage sustained there on 5th May 1943 Cat.E2/FB damage was the assessment and it was struck off charge on 22nd May 1943. It had clocked up just over 67 hours total flying time from new.